When we said the steaks weren't cooked to our liking the owner pulled one of them apart on the plate with a soup spoon and argued with us. He was the rudest individual I have encountered ever in the restaurant business. The steaks were over charbroiled and dry. Having already spent $100 on apps and wine he was still unaccomodating and wanted to charge us for the whole meal. Very bad business practice on his part I think. He spoke in a condescending manner. Would never go back or recommend this to any of our customers our friends. read more

My wife and I were in town from SF to visit family, stopped in here for some amazing steak. We had the bone-in ribeye, a couple fillets, and an assortment of sides. The steaks were all top notch, I couldn't decide if my ribeye was better than any of the fillets I tried. As for the sides, the mushrooms and lobster mac-n-cheese were great complimentary dishes for the steaks, but the asparagus and sautéed peppers stood out the most. The asparagus had a sweet flavor that I've never experienced before; an the sautéed peppers had some nice extra kick. Their salad is very good, I'd attribute that to the dressing. It's a very good vinegarette. We also had some calamari for an appetizer, I'm very picky about calamari since most places overcook it until its chewy or do a poor job with the batter; all in all, these guys got it right. Food is definitely great, we thought the service was good, so I don't know why some folks dished out the poor reviews. If you want a good steak, hit up this place. read more

Excellent food, steaks cooked perfectly, great service, good wine list, great atmosphere. What more could you ask for. Randy and his staff know what they are doing and they do it well. I visit Aiken frequently, Prime is always my first and sometimes only stop for a meal. What a find.... read more

We had a less than great experience at Prime Steaks in Aiken, SC.. Granted this was the only restaurant open on a Sunday evening. It was Augusta week and the restaurant was very busy. However prices were out of sight. $38.00 for Beef Stroganoff and $28.00 for Chicken. Larger cuts were much more. A glass of wine was $13.00. My Stroganoff was mediocre and the greyish sauce and noodles were not hot. The "vegetable" was fried onion rings--no substitutions. I believe it was $10.00 more for another side of asparagus or other vegetable. My husband felt the same about the chicken, overpriced and not worth it. If you love massive steaks and high priced drinks, this is your go-to place. Otherwise skip it. read more

Interesting to read all the other reviews. In spite of the other poor reviews we decided to try this for my birthday. If you want a good steak go to Outback or Longhorn. If you want a really good steak, this is a good place. You do pay for what you get and the prices here were a little on the high side, but the steak was very good. They could have increased the amount of mashed potatoes that came with the steak, but that's a minor complaint. The wife had the stroganoff, and it was more than enough that you took some home. The meat was tender and flavorful. We went on a weekday and wasn't crowded, and the staff was good. Overall I think it was a good place I will probably go again. read more

Nice place, very nice décor. Service was very friendly but the owner was a bit gruff. Prices were jacked up a bit because of the Masters crowd, We went early as he does not take reservations for parties of 6 or less and the place was kind of empty - it did fill up but I did not see a waiting line to get in either (Monday of Masters week). I get it, but come on automatically adding 20% gratuity even for a party of 2?? It would be nice if that was noted on the menu or if we were told up front. I would likely have tipped 20% because our waitress was very nice, but don't leave it up to her to tell me about the automatic 20% when she delivers the bill. Steak was ok, my wife had the stroganoff - it was good, a bit garlicky. Salad was good but we were never offered another serving of the supposedly 'endless' salad - the bus boy just took it away. Prime is a nice place, I'd likely go again and I can recommend it to others, but not the best by far. read more

This was our 2nd time to visit during Master's week. The quality of the food and service doesn't match the price they charge. Very disappointing. read more

The steaks are very good, and we also enjoyed the salad. The appetizers and desserts are overpriced. My boyfriend was unhappy, because his "10 ounce" frenched ribeye was clearly smaller than either of the 6 oz. filets that two of us ordered. We had the black forest cake for dessert, which was $8.50 for each smallish slice of cake (which tasted okay, but definitely wasn't home made). The desserts at Malia's are much better, and so is the price. The music videos with James Taylor and Carole King are nice, buy that seems to be the only music they ever have. Apparently, they have raised the prices yet again since our last visit. The place is really charming, so I wish the value were better. I might go back, since the steaks and accompaniments are good, but my boyfriend says he never will. read more

Came across this place a bit by accident and SO glad I did. This is the best steak in Aiken, for sure. Love the ambiance of the place; the owner and staff are very friendly and remember me even thought I have only been there a couple of times. They especially take care of my elderly mom by cutting her meat for her in the kitchen and by paying attention to all the little details. The salad ... AMAZING! I'm not sure what is in the dressing, but the salad is both simple and delicious. read more

We just ate at Prime Steakhouse and the food and service was amazing. Cozy place with amazing food. We are visiting from Southern Califronia, so finding a great restaurant in a small town like Aiken is truly a discovery. Southern hospitality is defined by Randy who received my panic call as we were walking to his restaunt and our Google GPS led us in the wrong direction on a night where the temp was 35 degrees. Freezing, and lost -- I called for better directions and Randy immediately said, don't move -- I'll be there to pick you guys up. Now that is what I call hospitality! We defrosted, had a wonderful dinner and then his son returned us to our hotel. Can't say more about how wonderful our experience was tonight! Thank you Randy and the staff at Prime Steakhouse!!!! read more

Not worth it!! This is the worst steak house in Aiken. Their web site says, "dine with us for an extraordinary experience" the only experience we had was a bad experience.Thought I would take my wife to a nice expensive restaurant for a good steak only to be very disapointed. We ordered the 36oz porterhouse steak med-well and when we received it the steak was WELL DONE and chared black, Also, the 36oz turned out to be about a 12-14oz steak at a price of $62.00. It really was the worst steak I have ever eaten. And for the price they charged I will not be giving them a second try. read more

After my mother passes away I found a $100 gift certificate from Prime in her office as I was cleaning. My mom had cancer and was unable to use the gift certificate. I called to see if they would honor it, and since it was more than 6 months old they refused. There is no expiration date on the certificate, just a date of purchase. The gentleman on the phone did not seem to care at all that someone spent $100 on this and now it is trash. The fact that there is not an expiration date is what really disappoints me. To be a local business, one would think they would go out of their way to make things good. And that $100 gift certificate would have likely been used on a $400 meal had my husband and I been able to take my dad there to use it. read more

Excellent food, service and atmosphere!! By far the best steak in the CSRA!!

Best steak I have ever eaten. The filet mignon is melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and even though this restaurant is a bit pricy, it is worth every penny. Price includes salad, veggies and potatoes, so overall decent pricing when compared to Ruth's Chris. The owner really knows his beef! Excellent ambience and the music is just the right volume level. Taking out-of-town family there tomorrow night! read more

My wife and I visited on 6/17. I had the Rib eye and she had the Fillet. The appetizer we ordered, the crab stuffed mushroom, was oily and had a very bitter aftertaste. The bread and salad were excellent, and our waitress was superb. The steaks were juicy and cooked to perfection. We were both disappointed with the twice-baked potatoes, which had the consistency of cheese grits. read more

Prime is as fine a steak house you will find anywhere. The owner is on premise and makes it a point to personally warmly welcome you. Great wine selection, fantastic steaks and seafood, service second to none. Prime is a 10 plus every time! read more

I had a very rude experience with whoever answered the phone in making reservations. Something like "I am not taking reservations!" (in an angry tone) "I will open up my phone at 4:00 pm the day of The Masters, first come first serve!!" (in an angry tone), then he hung up on me. Goodness, I called the hotel where my boss was staying during the Masters week, and told the concierge about what happened, and they confirmed that the person who answers the phone at Prime Steakhouse in Aiken is quite rude and they do not like to deal with that restaurant. Would not give my hard earned money to an establishment who treats people like they have to win a lottery ticket to eat at their establishment. read more

I honestly didn't know what to expect after reading the reviews on here and other websites but decided to go in with an open mind and it paid off. This was probably the best steak that I have ever had! The service was great and the owner was there and super nice! He came over multiple times and checked on us and asked if he could do anything for us. It was very expensive and not just your every weekend restaurant but it was well worth the money. Overall 5 stars. read more

We had a party of 6 for dinner here and it was delicious. We were met at the door by the owner, Randy, who even came and sat down with us as we waited on the rest of our party to arrive. We had reservations so our glasses of water were waiting on us when we arrived. 4 people got steak, one got salmon, and one got the shrimp primavera. Everyone loved their food! A salad was served first which was delicious as well. My only complaint is that the menu selection is very small. I'M A VERY PICKY EATER, and I know it, and understand sometimes that smaller restaurants have smaller menu's. I don't mind paying well for good food and fortunately our food was good. If it hadn't have been, I would have been very upset as I think the prices for Aiken are quite high. read more

I don't understand the bad reviews. I've eaten here several times. The steaks are great, the atmosphere nice. Everyone else I talk to likes it too. I I can complain about anything the side dish portions could be a little larger read more

Food was great but very disappointed when they added 20% for tip to bill without any notice. Understand on large party but there was only my wife and I. They should let patron know tip is automatically added at 20%. You have no choice. read more

I took my husband to PRIME on Richland Avenue in Aiken SC in order to celebrate his graduation from the criminal justice academy. I was excited to be dining out somewhere that is not a chain, cookie cutter restaurant. This place had perfect atmosphere, lighting, artwork on the brick walls, white linen tablecloths, great music playing at a decent volume so that me and my husband could actually hear one another speak. Best of all, no sports playing on a TV in every corner. I thought," Finally! A date night restaurant we can go to on those rare occasions we are willing and able to splurge on a dinner together!" But to my dismay the food part started off badly. We both wanted steak. Problem is that you have to accept the sides given with no substitutions. The sides that came automatically with out steaks were onion rings, mixed vegetable like squash, zucchini, string beans and onions and a small but good portion of mashed potatoes. I personally loved the sides and would have chosen them if given a choice but my husband really dislikes this particular vegetable medley type and he also hates onion rings. He could have ordered and paid for different sides separately but the price was already very high and he knew I did not really have a whole lot of money to spend. So he decided to just go with the flow. I really wished my husband could have had the sides he desired, it would have made up for a lot. First the bowl of limp, bland, unappetizing, iceberg lettuce salad came out along with hard, chewy, cold bread with frozen butter that could not even be spread onto the bread but we choked a small bit of the bread down and continued to try and keep an open mind...Maybe the steak would be so amazing that it would make up for all these things. My filet mignon was perfect! Ordered Med-rare...it came out med-rare. My husband ordered his steak Rare...It was also cooked to perfection....that is if he had ordered his med-rare. He was disappointed but still ate it and said it was alright. We were just going to pay and leave without saying a word but the owner caught us just outside the door and asked our opinion. My husband asked if he wanted honesty. The owner said yes...This was not true, my husband barely got his calm complaint about the salad out of his mouth before the owner interrupted and told us how he has owned 30 steak houses and he can assure us that his salad is authentic, New York style steak house salad. So, my husband knew right away that this man has no interest in hearing from his customers unless they only have good things to say. He did not bother to continue and we just walked away. The look he gave us was incredulous. I can hear in my mind his version of us when and if he retold this story. He would probably have my husband wearing overalls and have me described as being barefoot and pregnant. I think he believed he was schooling two ignorant Southerners on the way things are done in New York...As if we are supposed to be impressed or just say thank you and leave happy. Such a shame, I truly loved the atmosphere and would love to see a small business such as this succeed. But the fact that we went on a Friday evening around 7pm and the place was practically empty, showed me that PRIME will probably not last long. Our search for a place in Aiken that we can call," Our Place" continues. Anybody that knows of a great date night restaurant please reply to this comment and let me know about it. read more

STAW AWAY!!! Picture going to a restaurant called "The Lobster House" only to go there and find out they don't serve lobster. Same goes at "Prime". Guess what they don't have??? Prime beef.... although their website says they do. They only have "choice" so why don't they call the place "Choice". That was just the tip of the iceburg. They claim their meat is dry aged but it should more accurately be called dried out! I ordered the 6 oz. filet, rare. There is only one choice of salad dressing, cheap tasting Italian. No other choices. You also get no other choices of anything else without paying extra. The menu says "no substitutions" and they mean it. I was served a side of runny mashed potatoes, some kind of snow pea and onion stir fry and, according to my waitress, 2 or 3 HUGE onion rings which came out the size of golf balls at best. But, back to the steak. Rare means a cool red center. My steak was literally burned on the outside and was gray with a touch of pink in the center. That, to me, is medium well. I told my waitress and she went to the owner. He came over, said that was rare, turned his back on me and walked away. For $29.00, I would expect MUCH better. Never again!!! Do yourself a favor... go anywhere else and save a bunch of money. read more

Please do not support this business. We were in town for the Masters, and wanted to celebrate our last night of an awesome trip with a nice meal, however that did not happen. We ordered a steak medium, and it came out completely rare. Not being the people to complain, we were hemming and hawing over whether to say something but we decided to because it was not an inexpensive meal. After telling our waitress, she kindly took it back to the kitchen to have them cook it some more. She brought it back out about 5 minutes later more burnt on the outside with the middle again completely rare. After choking some of it down, we decided to leave, but not before asking for the manager who also happens to be the owner. We saw our waitress talk to him, and reluctantly she came back with the check saying that he said we should have sent the steak back again. We couldn't believe that the owner wouldn't even make some sort of effort to apologize, and instead completely put the blame on us. It was unreal that he made his staff do his dirty work. And of course once we went to leave he went to hide in the back so we couldn't speak with him. Talk about TERRIBLE customer service. Again I say, Please do not support this business. read more

Zero stars....We went in around 515pm..we were the only ones there. The salad was good..ordered the "special" T-bone steak and ordered medium rare. The manager brought it out to show me how thick it was..I figured how hard would it be to mess it up.......well it was well done on the outside..medium at best in the center..I asked the manager how would he say this was cooked he said medium rare..either he cooked it..or knew what it was SUPPOSED to be..cause medium rare it wasn't....not juicy..dried and over cooked and so was hers..our tab was 91 bucks..and only drink i had was ice tea..she had water...onion rings..no substitution..well don't eat onion rings...told them to keep it...snap peas veggies..don't eat that..so ..i ate a little scoop of mashed potatoes and overcooked steak..will NEVER go back!!!! Waiter was good..we left about hour later..and only about 3 or 4 people had come in... read more

Visited Aiken with some colleagues for two weeks, and this was by far this best restaurant in the area. We had three people with us, and we each got the special of the day. Why go to a nice steakhouse and get something that you can get everywhere else? This cut was a 2" thick bone in new york strip steak--and it was unbelievable. I had it twice over the course of ten days, and it was cooked perfectly both times. The appetizers are great, and the meal is served with bread (garlic infused olive oil was already on the table) and salad. It has an awesome wine list too. Overall a great experience, the owner talked to us both nights. Only downside would be the price, we each spent around $65. But I would easily place the meal I had here over a Ruth Chris or Morton's steakhouse. Luckily we hit it in the "off" season when the horse races and polo games aren't in town, the owner said it could get pretty crowded during that time of year. read more

I'm not sure how anyone could not be pleased with Prime. We walked in to an almost full restaurant on Saturday. I am glad we made reservations, or it may have been an issue. Our server, Nicole, was great. She was on top of her game the entire evening. I don't know if the other reviewer asked, but they had no problem making substitutions for me. Nicole offered to substitute creamed spinach for the vegetable medley, when I ordered it as a side. And, I just simply gave my husband my onion rings. The house salad was delish, it was simple and just right. The vinaigrette was just perfect. For specials they were offering Calamari that evening, so both my Husband and I didn't hesitate to order it. It was prepared just right and served with some of the most delicious marinara sauce I have had in years. My husband opted for the New York Strip and I went with the Bone In Rib Eye. Both were prepared exactly as we had ordered them. And they were incredible. We ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir to go with our Dinner, and it was just the right wine to go with the steaks. This is most definitely not a chain restaurant. What you get is a personal experience by someone who takes a great deal of pride and passion to plate. read more